With AccountEx 2017 just around the corner, we thought you may like to take a look back to last year.
“My name is Barry Florida-James, I’m the managing director of JustAccounts and we produce cloud accountancy software.”
“Traditional accounts software is sold to the end clients of the accountants, classed as retails products, so the SME gets their own database uses that software internally and then files information with the accountant so the accountant has to wait for the information to come to them and then periodically deal with it.”
“The problem with this is, it’s very time consuming for both the client and the accountant, there’s also data protection issues, there’s issues around timeliness and obviously, that can lead to filing penalties and fines.”
“The concept of JustAccounts is that instead of having a retail product that the client chooses themselves, we sell to the accountant who then provides their client with a branded portal that’s specific to the client, only gives the functionality to the client that they need so when the client logs in and they predominantly generate invoices the first thing they see is ‘generate invoices’. This saves the client time and frustration because they are not trying to have to get to grips with a complex piece of software.”
“There’s also, on the back office, proficiency savings for the accountant because they can run reports across the whole client base, they can do batch processing like VAT returns, payroll, batch bank reconciliation and this really is unique to the JustAccounts solution.”
“The benefits of white labelling are that the solution locks your clients into you and your brand. JustAccounts doesn’t appear anywhere in the client’s ecosystem, therefore if your client decides to leave you, they’ve not only got to leave you, they’ve got to leave the JustAccounts system, which means taking their data with them somewhere else so it’s a double barrier to client retention.”
“Some people may be worries about the security of an online system, but JustAccounts uses the very best encryption technology. The channel between the accountant and the client is locked, so once that channel is open no-one else can get into it, none of the information can get past and that is a far safer method of communication than traditional email or any other way of electronically sending information.”
“The management of JustAccounts from the accountant’s perspective allows you to organise the view the way your company’s organised, so for example some of our clients organise by groups of clients and one accountant will look after that group of clients. You can also organise by function, perhaps one person does bank reconciliation and another person does payroll, if that’s the case then the bank rec person will have access to all the clients but just that one feature. In the other organisation system, the accountant has access to their group of clients for all of the features including bank reconciliation and payroll.”
“The extent of the JustAccounts system is the extent of your practice, and what that means is that in the single database you have all of your clients, what this allows JustAccounts to do is batch processing so for example when VAT returns are due, you cannot only submit one VAT return at a time all of the clients whose VAT returns are due will appear in a list and you simply click one button and they all get submitted.”
“JustAccounts is sold on a per client per month basis, there’s no contract terms locking you in, we hope the software is good enough you’ll start using it you’ll keep using it. There’s a mandatory two days training, because obviously, because it’s tailored to your clients and what they need we have to set them all up individually and we want to take you through that process so it’s as successful as possible. After the two days, mandatory training, we’ve got a support team that work normal office hours and are there to help you.”